Yamato koi i no neraenu ni kokoro naku kono susakimi ni tazu naku beshi ya

大和恋ひ寐の寝らえぬに心なく
この洲崎廻に鶴鳴くべしや

Roma-ji: Yamato koi i no neraenu ni kokoro naku kono susakimi ni tazu naku beshi ya
English Translation: Longing for Yamato,
I cannot even sleep, yet
heartlessly the cranes,
here about this sandy point—
should they be crying so?
Meaning: Longing for Yamato, I cannot sleep—should the cranes be crying so heartlessly here around this sandy point?
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 71

Headnote: "Poems from the journey of the late Emperor to the Naniwa Palace"
On a royal journey to Naniwa, the poet, unable to sleep for longing for Yamato, reproaches the cranes crying around the sandy point for heartlessly stirring his homesickness still further. The left note names the author as Osakabe no Otomaro. The headnote's "late Emperor" (daikō tennō) refers to a sovereign who has died but has not yet received a posthumous name—here, Emperor Monmu.
Osakabe no Otomaro is a figure whose life is unknown. The left note to this poem tells us only that he attended Emperor Monmu's journey to Naniwa.

The first line, "longing for Yamato," sets out his homesickness from the start.
In the second line, i means sleep, rae is the irrealis form of the potential auxiliary rayu, and nu the attributive of the negative zu: "though I cannot even sleep."
The third line, "heartlessly," treats the cranes as persons and reproaches them. Like "might you not have a heart" in poem 18 of this book, it asks nature to have a heart.
In the fourth line, susaki is a spit of sand jutting into the water and mi its surroundings, here a sandy point on the Naniwa shore.
In the last line, beshi expresses what is proper and ya makes it rhetorical: "should they cry? Surely not." Like "should you keep it hidden so?" at the end of poem 18 in this book, it chides nature's heartlessness with a rhetorical beshi ya. And whereas the cranes' cries were a comfort in poem 67, here they disturb sleep—a striking contrast.
Author: Osakabe no Otomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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